Saturday Sundries

Another day , another consultation or so it appears - this time from the UK IPO concerning a potential modernisation and simplification of the Copyright Tribunal's rules of procedure. The IPKat has not had time time to review the 37 pages consultation document, which the interested reader can access by clicking here (PDF). Comments can be submitted until 1 July 2009. More details can be found on the IPO's website here.


This Kat is wondering what gems might be hidden in the 37 page consultation document (Jamie Edwards' painting can be bought here).


After several months of secrecy surrounding the Anti-Counterfeiting Trade Agreement (ACTA) negotiations and increasing demands for more transparency and access to the negotiation documents from civil rights groups as well as the European Parliament (see the IPKat's post here), the Office of the United States Trade Representative has this week published a six page document setting out a Summary of Key Elements Under Discussion in relation to the ACTA. Information relating to ACTA had previously been classified by the US government.

Thanks go to the IPKat's friend Louise O'Callaghan (Pupil at Hardwicke Building) for alerting the IPKat to this topic.


Finally, Reuters reports that the French luxury goods producer Hermes has won a record sum of 7.5 million US Dollars in damages in a trade mark infringement case brought against a former employee who had sold four counterfeit handbags. According to Taiwan News the court also ordered the infringer, a former Hermes saleswoman, to publish the verdict and an apology in two local newspapers. AFP explains that under the Taiwan trade mark act, infringers can be "subject to a fine (damages?) between 500 to 1,500 times of the price of the original product".